Orange Moon Friday, August 22, 2025 "Full of Compassion"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Full of Compassion" 

   

    

      "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion" (Psalm 111:4).

    The Psalmist declares our God to be filled with caring.  The writer of Hebrews expands and enhances the truth...

      "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:14-16).

    Compassion ventures far beyond caring.  It rather enters into the sorrows and sufferings of others, finding a way to share and bear burdens.  Such a sensibility fills the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ for humanity, to the degree this eternal, infinite Being of glorious majesty left His throne of Heaven to reveal a compassion that required the taking upon Himself of our humanity.  Consider but a few confirmations of such devotion and deference…

    God's "eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" meant that our Savior knew from everlasting He would enrobe Himself with our humanity, and all the challenges this would entail (Ephesians 3:11).

    He was conceived in the womb of a virgin through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, the Divine becoming human in the greatest of all mysteries and condescensions (I Timothy 3:16).

   The Creator of Joseph and Mary, their sovereign Lord, obeyed them as a child, and as an adult.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus delayed the beginning of His ministry in deference to His earthly parents.  He also began His ministry in deference to Mary (Luke 2:51; John 2:1-11).  Our Savior realized that God often administers His divine authority through human authority, and humbled Himself accordingly in devotion to the pride-ravaged humanity He came to save.

   He lived so inauspiciously during the vast majority of His early lifetime that when His ministry began, His own brothers did not know who He was (John 7:5).

    He conducted His ministry in a manner that clearly revealed His compassion for the lost, the dying, and the deceived.  Whether in tender ministrations to sufferers, or the willingness to confront wayward hearts and minds, the Lord Jesus made the needs of human hearts His own (Isaiah 53:4).

    He wept tears as a man, and was "the man of sorrows."  Not His own sorrows, but the sorrows of others (John 11:35; Isaiah 53).

   The cross.  He who should have been eternally borne by a throne hung on a tree because we all matter to Him in a measure that eternity will never fully reveal.  "The love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  Not only did He make our cares His cares.  He also bore our sins in the great sacrifice of the ages and of eternity.  The Apostle Paul even declares our Lord to have been "made… sin" for us in a mystery of horror that made possible the mercy of God's freely given salvation (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21).  Yes, for you and for me and for all, the One who "hated iniquity" became everything He was not in order to make us everything we were not.  

     He cared?  He cares?  Oh yes, but it is so much more than that.  "Full of compassion."  As the adage so beautifully expresses, "our tears fall from His face."  Let us make this personal.  We bear scars of the past.  No one escapes some form of pain in the present.  We will hurt in the future.  Not one of our griefs and sufferings goes unnoticed by our Lord.  All have a place in His heart, a place of the most wondrous grace our hearts can imagine.  Little wonder the Apostle Peter called us to do something with our cares, to cast them upon the One who cares - and who more than cares (I Peter 5:7).   Full of compassion.

"He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

(Isaiah 53:12)

Weekly Memory Verse     

     And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

(Hebrews 7:15-16)

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Orange Moon Thursday, August 21, 2025 “The Example and Executor (of Humility)”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The Example and Executor (of Humility)" 

   

    

      By Biblical definition, the Lord Jesus Christ never became God.

    "Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, o God, is forever and ever… From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Hebrews 1:8; Psalm 90:2).

    In "the mystery of godliness", however, the second Person of the Trinity, however, did become man.  "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).  Somehow, the Eternal entered into the temporal, the Divine became human, and the Almighty took upon Himself the capacity for weakness, limitation, and even death.  "He was crucified through weakness… He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death" (II Corinthians 13:4; Philippians 2:8).

    Our obedience in obeying the command to "humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord" lies in the Lord Jesus as our example and executor of humility (James 4:10).  Indeed, the only human being who ever really had anything of which to be proud, wasn't.  The Lord worthy of eternal glory "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7).  How can such a wonder even occur?  How can One of such being, power, and measure that "the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee" become resident in a human body and personality? (II Chronicles 6:18).  Great indeed is the mystery of godliness in the sense of how the Word could be made flesh.

    The far greater enigma, however, involves the willingness of heart to become human, with all its limitations of life and ultimate suffering of death.  What kind of character and nature leads One to do that?  Of all that Heaven will involve, the eternally ongoing discovery of our Lord's wondrous disposition as the God who became man, and the man who remains God will most occupy our quest and adventure.  Such goodness has no limit, and regardless of how far we journey into the heart of our Lord, the Spirit of God beckons us to come further, dive deeper, and climb higher.  "The love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).

   "Walk even as He walked" (I John 2:6).  If our Lord's sublime example loomed before us as merely a prototype to follow, utter folly would ensue.  This is not the case.  "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).  Our Example also serves as our Executor.  The quality of humility to which our Father calls us far transcends our capability of character.  He did not create us to live by our own attempts to duplicate a sublime sensibility that inherently exists only in One.  God rather made us to serve as the spiritual dwelling place of the Lord Jesus.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Thereby - and only thereby - His character progressively nurtures and effects the quality of Christ's nature within us, and revealed through us.  No calling of God more requires such grace than His command that we "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus… who humbled Himself" (Philippians 2:5; 8).

    Forever will not be long enough to fully discover the glory of the Lord Jesus revealed in both power and humility.  This day offers the possibility of further realization as we ponder the example of Christ in the pages of Scripture, and along the pathways of life as He dwells and walks in us.  How will He lead and enable us to humble ourselves before God and people?  We will find out as we kneel in humility before our Father, as exemplified by the Son and enabled by the Holy Spirit.  Thereby, the beauty of Christ's character revealed to us will become "the hope of glory" revealed in us and through us, as the Psalmist prayed…

"And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

(Psalm 90:17)

Weekly Memory Verse     

     And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

(Hebrews 7:15-16)

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Orange Moon Wednesday, August 20, 2025 "The Measure of Pleasure"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

(Friends, as I finished this, a text came in from a dear former neighbor who moved away last year to let us know her dear dog Roxie passed away last week. I know you will pray for Ralph and Renee in the loss of their beloved pet, who so beautifully illustrated the theme of this message.)

"The Measure of Pleasure" 

   

    

      Nearly every dog owner will attest to one of the most wonderful experiences in the relationship involving responses after separation.  Be it an hour away, or days, weeks, months, or even years, the joy of a dog in his master or mistresses' return is… well, having been blessed as a lifelong dog owner by so many moments, I have no words to describe the joy.

   "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Micah 7:18).

   If "the invisible things of Him from the creation of world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," we can surely surmise that moments of canine joy reflect the joyful response we elicit in God when we relate to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:20).  "The Lord taketh pleasure in His people" declared the Psalmist (Psalm 149:4).  This raises questions that illuminate us simply in the asking.  What is the measure of pleasure in the heart of an infinite, eternal Being?  How deep are the feelings of the One who made emotion?  Can any created being's experience of joy begin to compare with that of his Creator?  Regarding the current consideration, can it be that our response to God literally delights His heart?

    I often think of this when coming home to our beagle Ellie's obvious thrill and happiness in our return.  Can it be that our Father reveals something of Himself in the unmitigated joy we see in Ellie? (and every other dog we have ever owned).  After so many of these moments, and after finding in the Scriptures that God loves human hearts to the degree He sacrificed His beloved Son to redeem us unto relationship with Himself, I have no doubt in the matter.  I do grieve, however, because after long believing this sublime truth, I still too often forget that through Christ, I possess the capacity to delight the heart of God by relating to Him.  More questions arise.  How can it be that we have such a place, such a place of grace, in His heart?  How do former rebels become such "dear children" to the Father? (Ephesians 5:1).  How vast is the scope and span of the most familiar of all Biblical declarations - "For God so loved the world?"   How can it be that your prayers and mine delight the heart of our Lord?

   The answers, never to be fully known, lie in the Spirit of God, the Word of God, the church of God, the creation of God, and yes, in the exuberant exhilaration those blessed to own dogs experience when we turn our attention toward them.  I think of this when hearing sounds of joy before we even enter the house after being away.  Ellie first races toward my wife Frances (of course!), and then to me, greeting us with sheer delight.  Most importantly, Ellie bears messages from the Maker she so beautifully represents and reflects.  "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" said the Lord to Israel long ago, and which He surely echoes to all who trust Him (Jeremiah 31:3).  Ellie and so many others of her species tell us this, encouraging us to remember the joy - the infinite measure of pleasure - our Father knows when we turn our hearts toward Him.

"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."

(Luke 15:20; emphasis added)

"Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more."

(I Thessalonians 4:1)

Weekly Memory Verse     

     And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

(Hebrews 7:15-16)

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